Research Guides: Basic Literature Research Guide: Doing Literary Research

Primary Sources - Monographs

Oxford English Dictionary
Etymological dictionary; can be helpful in decoding unfamiliar words and usages in early modern documents.
Early American Imprints
An electronic version of the Early American Imprints set. Includes the full text of all known existing books, pamphlets, and broadsides published in the Thirteen Colonies or the United States between 1639 and 1800.
Early English Books Online (EEBO)
Digital facsimile page images of virtually every work printed in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and British North America and works in English printed elsewhere from 1473-1700 - from the first book printed in English by William Caxton, through the age of Spenser and Shakespeare and the tumult of the English Civil War.
Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO)
Full text--including page images--of books, pamphlets and broadsides published in England or in English between 1701 and 1800.
Nineteenth Century Collections Online (NCCO)
Primary source collections of the “long” nineteenth century (1769-1906). Content includes monographs, newspapers, manuscripts, ephemera, maps, and more.
Gale Primary Sources
This searchable database includes Eighteenth Century Collections Online, Nineteenth Century Collections Online, Making of the Modern World.
Shakespeare Collection
Multiple resources for the study of Shakespeare, including criticism, the Arden full-text annotated editions, journal articles, prompt books, and other reference material
Other ZSR Primary Source Databases
Full listing of all the ZSR primary source databases

Primary Sources - News and Magazines

American News and Magazines

International News & Magazines

Getting Started and Background Resources

Basic Background/Context Resources

Gale Virtual Reference Library
Searchable full text of reference books in many subjects. Books can be searched together or individually.
Credo Reference
Subject encyclopedias, dictionaries, atlases, and reference handbooks. Also included are over 1,100 short reference videos, nearly 450,000 high-resolution art images, photographs and maps across all subject areas.

Literature-Specific Background Resources

Gale Literary Sources
Combined interface for searching across multiple literature criticism resources simultaneously. Sources searched include Dictionary of Literary Biography, Contemporary Authors, Shakespearean Criticism, Contemporary Literary Criticism, and more.
Gale Literature Resource Center
Provides access to biographies, bibliographies and critical analysis of authors from every age and literary discipline. It covers more than 90,000 novelists, poets, essayists, journalists and other writers, with in-depth coverage of 2,000 of the most-studied authors. Literature Resource Center combines Contemporary Authors, Contemporary Literary Criticism, Dictionary of Literary Biography, Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature, and other reference sets into a single service.
Literary Reference Center Plus
Contains author biographies, literary criticism, book chapters, journal articles and book reviews.

Online Catalog

Use the library's online catalog to locate books and other materials.

To find books on a theme or issue in an author's work, enter the name of the author/work and a term that best conveys the issue you are researching, e.g. Macbeth and feminis* (the asterisk is a truncation symbol that allows for word variants, such as feminist or feminism)
To find books about a literary author or other figure, change the dropdown menu to "Subject" and enter the person's name; to limit results to literary criticism, add the term "criticism."
Change the "Relevance" sorting menu to "Date Descending" to retrieve more recent books first.
Click on Table of Contents tab to view table of contents/chapter titles information for the book.
Click on "Subjects" lines to view additional books on related subjects.

Journal Databases

Multipurpose Databases

Proquest
Searches across all ProQuest article databases. Contains articles covering the humanities, social sciences, sciences, and business.

Literary Criticism Databases

MLA International Bibliography
Indexes articles, books, chapters of books, conference proceedings, dissertations, and working papers on topics relating to literature, modern languages, folklore, and linguistics.
Humanities Index International
An index to creative, critical and scholarly English-language literary journals and magazines (primarily American and Canadian). Most of these journals are either not indexed elsewhere or are indexed only partially in other indexing services. All publications are indexed in their entirety - including fiction and poems.
Literature Criticism Online
Extensive, searchable compilation of literary commentary. Scholarly and popular commentary from broadsheets, pamphlets, books and periodicals, with page images of the print originals.
ABELL (Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature)
Indexes and selectively abstracts periodical articles, monographs, critical editions of literary works, book reviews, collections of essays, and doctoral dissertations published anywhere in the world. Emphasis is on British, American and Commonwealth writing. Also includes links to the full text of more than 60 journals.
JSTOR
JSTOR is a multidisciplinary database that provides historical coverage for scholarly journals, many all the way back to the first issue, as well as British pamphlets. JSTOR searches the full text of every article, so remember to put phrases in quotations to keep terms together. You can narrow your search further by using the subject areas below the search boxes.
Project MUSE
Provides access to the full text of over 100 scholarly journals in the arts and humanities and social sciences. Coverage: Varies. Format: Articles: Journals or Newspapers

Other Databases Of Interest

America History and Life
America: History and Life provides access to journal articles, book chapters, books, and more concerning the history and culture of the United States and Canada from the earliest recorded times to the present. See Historical Abstracts for world history.
Historical Abstracts
Historical Abstracts provides indexing and abstracts for journal articles, books, and dissertations covering the history of the world from 1450 -- except the U.S. and Canada.
International Medieval Bibliography (IMB)
Two databases that cover all aspects of the medieval period. Both databases allow you to limit to specific centuries. Go to the Advanced Search screen to limit to English.
Contemporary Women's Issues
This database deals specifically with Women's and Gender Studies Issues.
International Index to the Performing Arts
Good for scholarly film reviews and other scholarly articles. Not full-text, but there are links with each article to get to our full-text options.
ProQuest Sociology
ProQuest Sociology covers the international literature of sociology and social work, including culture and social structure, history and theory of sociology, social psychology, substance abuse and addiction, and more.
PsycINFO
Provides comprehensive coverage for the field of psychology. Contains abstracts from articles, books, book chapters, journals, dissertations, and other sources. Links to full text in PsycARTICLES. Coverage: 1806-.
Proquest Political Science
Contains abstracts and indexing from professional journals, major news magazines and books covering law, politics, political science, and public administration.

Rosalind Tedford

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Contact:

ZSR Library
Room 457A

336-758-5910

Subjects:American History, English Literature, Humanities - General, Political Science

Basic Literature Research Guide: Doing Literary Research

More from ZSR

Primary Sources - Monographs

Primary Sources - News and Magazines

American News and Magazines

International News & Magazines

Getting Started and Background Resources

Basic Background/Context Resources

Literature-Specific Background Resources

Online Catalog

Journal Databases

Multipurpose Databases

Literary Criticism Databases

Other Databases Of Interest

Rosalind Tedford